The young German-Israeli Shani Louk, whose semi-naked and motionless body was displayed as a trophy by Hamas gunmen in a gruesome viral video, is seriously injured in a Gaza hospital, according to the Tagesschau, the German public broadcaster’s news channel. ARD.
His mother, Ricarda Louk, a German resident in Israel, has addressed the federal government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz imploring help, in a new video message that the Tagesschau released this Tuesday. Her mother explains that she has learned that her daughter is “in critical condition” with a very serious head injury in a hospital in Gaza.
“Every minute is decisive,” says Ricarda Louk, begging the German Executive to assume responsibilities and act “to quickly remove Shani from the Gaza Strip.” Her message, she says, “is a desperate call” to get her daughter back.
The young woman had been missing since Saturday, when Hamas terrorists attacked the rave festival in which she and hundreds of young people were participating, and there were fears for her life, given the mistreatment to which she had visibly been subjected. After the video of the truck spread on social networks over the weekend, the young woman’s mother already published a moving video asking for help: “This morning [Saturday] my daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German citizen, was kidnapped with a group of tourists in southern Israel by Palestinians from Hamas. “They sent us a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car with the Palestinians and them driving through the Gaza Strip.”
In the gruesome video scene, several Hamas gunmen shout from the open back of the van where a half-naked female body lies face down, while a crowd on foot cheers them on. A man grabs her by her hair and another has her leg over the young woman’s waist.
Shani Louk never lived in Germany, although she went to visit her grandparents in Ravensburg (southern land of Baden-Württemberg). Her mother, Ricarda Louk, a German who was Catholic and converted to Judaism, has lived in Israel for 30 years with her Israeli husband. The family resides 80 kilometers from Gaza.
